(Bloomberg) — Clearing Meta Platforms Inc.’s takeover of Kustomer comes with “a certain stomach ache,” Germany’s antitrust chief said as he gave a free pass to a longtime tech foe.
Andreas Mundt, the head of Germany’s Federal Cartel Office, has been battling Facebook for years in court and he refused to join other countries in getting the European Union to review the Kustomer deal, valued at more than $1 billion. The bloc ultimately approved the tie-up after the social network pledged to give rivals access to some data.
“We have to acknowledge with a certain stomach ache that the effects of the takeover would not have justified a prohibition,” Mundt said in a German-language press release announcing the deal approval on Friday.
Meta said it was “pleased that German and other regulators have cleared” the acquisition of Kustomer.
(Updates with Facebook response in fourth paragraph.)
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
